CIFS filesystem

CIFS, the Common Internet File System protocol, lets a
client computer perform transparent file access over
a network to a Windows system or a Unix system running an SMB server.

It was formerly known as SMB or Server
Message Block protocol, which was used to access resources in a controlled
fashion over a LAN. File access
calls from a client are converted to
CIFS protocol requests and are sent to the server
over the network. The server
receives the request, performs the actual
filesystem operation, and then sends
a response back to the client. CIFS runs on
top of TCP/IP and uses DNS.

The
fs-cifs
filesystem manager is a CIFS client
operating over TCP/IP. To use it, you must have an
SMB server and a valid login on that server.
The fs-cifs utility is primarily intended
for use as a client with Windows machines,
although it also works with any SMB server, such as OS/2 Peer, LAN Manager, and SAMBA.

The fs-cifs filesystem manager requires a TCP/IP transport layer,
such as the one provided by
io-pkt*.

For information about passwords—and some examples—see
fs-cifs
in the Utilities Reference.